Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

Jaffna, the main city of Jaffna district (until the year 1824, the district was called Waligama) district of Northern Province is located in the northernmost peninsula of Sri Lanka. Jaffna district is one of the 25 districts organized into the nine provinces, an artificial creation of the Colonial British (1815-1948) for the purposes of administration of the Island of Sri Lanka, then called Ceylon.

Reaching Jaffna

Jaffna city can be reached from Colombo by A9 main motor road. The distance of 404km from Colombo to Jaffna along the A3 main road, in view of the road conditions in the Northern Province, takes over 10 hours of drive time.

Jaffna in history

Nagadipa or Naka-diva was the ancient name of the Jaffna peninsula. Nagadipa is first mentioned in the Pali chronicles of Sri Lnaka in connection with the story of the Buddha's second visit to the island in the 6th century B.C. Mahavamsa (ch.1.vv 44-70) narrates that the Buddha during this visit made peace between two Naga kings of Nagadipa who were about to wage war over a gem-set throne. According to records seen by the Portuguese, Prince Sapumal of Kotte re-populated the barren Yapanaya with the Sinhalese of Kotte Kingdom. During the Dutch era Jaffna was populated by the south Indians brought into the peninsula for the cultivation of Tobacco. Today the Jaffna peninsula is inhabited mainly by the Tamils.

Jaffna sea port

Jaffna, a derivation of Yapa Patuna (Sinhala: Port of Yapanaya), since the ancient time had been one the four main sea ports in Sri Lanka, the others being Dambakola Patuna (KKS), Mathota (Mannar) in North-West and Gona (Trincomalee) in North-East. Jaffna's proximity to Powerful Dravidian kingdom over the Palk Straits with a width of only 30km resulted in frequent invasion of the prosperous island by the powerful Dravidian kingdoms in the southern India. Jaffna sea port had been the springboard of the Dravidian marauders from India in the ancient history of Sri Lanka.

Jaffna Airport

SLAF Palaly (IATA: JAF) is a domestic airport located 18km north of the city of Jaffna at Palali, Kankesanturai. The airport was built by the RAF, as RAF Kankesanturai during World War II. Palaly airport at Kankesanturai is flown by Daya Airlines (Colombo - Ratmalana), Deccan Airways (Colombo- Ratmalana), Colombo (Colombo-Bandranayake), Expo Aviation (Colombo-Ratmalana).

Jaffna Fort

Jaffna Fort, the second largest Dutch Fort in Sri Lanka, is located immediately south of Jaffna town, with the southern side bounded by the shallow waters of Jaffna lagoon, the inlet of the Indian Ocean that carves out the Jaffna Peninsula.

"A true and exact description of the Great Island of Ceylon" (1672) by Dutch pastor Phillipus Baldaeus, who lived in Jaffna for about nine years narrates:

http://www.lanka.com/sri-lanka/jaffna-sri-lanka-1000.html

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[ilovewathsala]

@sylvieshere yea..that dude called Chamath is only 13 ! dont take him seriously..He is an idiot who post stuff in all Sri lanka related videos ! - He thinks he is a true Sinhala Buddhist and insult all others..

[sylvieshere]

Thank you for uploading this. I plan to visit Jaffna next year. Pity about the person called chamath5 below - hardly the sort of person you would want to ever meet....